Theatre roundup – Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022
Ballet Freedom
The Freedom Ballet of the Ukraine
A cavalcade of raw sexuality and dark glamour shot through with wry humour, gorgeous cabaret costumes and ingenious staging.
★★★★★
Mythos: Ragnarok
The Mythological Theatre
A raucous, riotous mixture of action, comedy and Norse mythology – you won’t find anything else like it at this year’s Fringe.
★★★★★
Freddie Hayes: Potatohead
Freddie Hayes
If the elevator pitch of ‘Doctor Faustus but starring a potato’ isn’t enough to get you in the door then the promise of surreal puppetry, sing-along karaoke and more spud based puns than you ever knew existed should be.
★★★★
Murder Ballads – The B Collective
There seem to be an unusually high number of shows that fall loosely under the bracket of ‘country’ at this year’s fringe, but this is likely to be the only one with such a gleefully twisted approach to manslaughter.
★★★★
Joffrey! The Pantomime
Quintuple L
A thigh-slapping, topsy turvy vision of Game of Thrones season one (‘before it got shit’) as seen through the eyes of everyone’s most hated child despot. The cast, and most notably kitten-jumper wearing King Robert, power through the material with great enthusiasm, and the odd ad lib thrown in where fitting. Knowing nods towards the original source, several entertaining running gags and more than a dash of Starkid in the lead performance make this a thoroughly enjoyable show that you don’t need to be a GOT geek to appreciate.
★★★★
Plague
Sidgwick and Sanders
A notably larger cast than most fringe productions helps add to the already credible ‘broadway’ feel of this show. This is a mostly light and humorous take on the pandemic / plague metaphor, but it does have its moments of bleakness. These darker undertones are perfectly, and eerily, embodied by the twisting, silent masked figure that appears with increasing frequency as the situation grows more dire. There are shades of Les Mis, both in the score and the theme, but with considerably more laughs and an unexpected, scene stealing, singing carrot.
★★★★
Pillows
Sam Adlam
Billed as must-see for 20 somethings, Pillows is in fact far more universal than that. Honest, raw, blackly funny and horribly relatable to anyone who has ever had one of those down-the-rabbit-hole ‘is our relationship broken beyond repair’ conversations. Naturalistic, believable performances from the actors and a script that kept me gripped from beginning to end make this one of my fringe highlights of the year.
★★★★★
You’re Dead, Mate
Edmund Morris and Harry Duff-Walker
It’s inevitable that a show dealing with the immediate confusion, panic and surprising bureaucracy of the afterlife will fit somewhere under the banner of ‘black humour’, but whilst You’re Dead, Mate is without doubt holler-out-loud funny it’s also warm, confrontational and touching. From the comforting revelation that G&T still tastes good on the other side to the less comforting suggestion that even Death doesn’t know what happens when you die, this is a jagged exploration of mortality, and by extension living, delivered through strong performances and a tight, intelligent script.
★★★★
Dot Dot Dot Dash
Two Ladders Productions
Part ‘Allo ‘Allo! style farce, part vintage spy radio play, Dot Dot Dash is a frenetic production that makes the most of both its actors versatility and that of the props. The staging is inventive and witty, becoming almost a star of the show in its own right, whilst the cast bring a chaotic feeling energy to what must in practice be a tightly choreographed piece.
★★★
Once Upon a Midnight Dreary
Quids In Theatre Company
Unlike many productions of its scale Once Upon a Midnight Dreary is at its best during the musical numbers. Eschewing a typically ‘west end’ score for something that leans towards bluesy pop rock, it has a surprisingly full sound for having only three cast members. In the dramatic moments a strong lead performance by the actor playing Poe, delivered with the rigid, morally indignant confusion of Hugh Grant in Polanski’s Bitter Moon, helps to anchor the play whilst madness descends around him.
★★
The Ecstasy of Victoria Woodhull
Owl & Pussycat Theatre Company
A fascinating first-person monologue (as long as you don’t include the other spirits that join in from time to time) detailing the extraordinary, and mostly forgotten, life of Victoria Woodhull. Delivered through the, pun intended, medium of seance, it is lightly comedic but with a dramatic, theatrical sensibility and should hit the spot for feminists, historians and paranormal spooks alike.
★★★
Laurel and Chaplin: Before They Were Famous
Jordan Conway, Matt Knight and Crazy Comedy Company
A delightful and suitably slapstick depiction of this little known chapter of movie history. Mostly hilarious but frequently moving, the two leads deliver energetic and charismatic performances backed by a small but equally strong cast. By rights the success of this company will go on to mirror that of the titular characters, rather than the overlooked and forgotten story of how they met – and parted.
★★★
007 Voices Of Bond
Night Owl Shows
A delightful tour of both classic and more recent Bond themes interspersed with behind the scenes trivia and history. Maia Elsey has a stunning voice and powers through even the biggest of the numbers, but really excels when she shifts gear for the smoother songs such as Nobody Does It Better. The band are fantastic and Another Way To Die was an unexpected highlight for me for this reason, despite not liking the song itself all that much. I particularly appreciate that they put their own stamp on the tracks rather than tried to mimic the original recordings, Elsey included, and controversially in the case of No Time To Die I even preferred their version.
★★★★
It’s Fraser Brown, I’m Afraid
Fraser Brown
A highly entertaining, and occasionally close to the knuckle, tour of Brown’s psyche from post millennial nihilism to necrophiliac family members. Despite being occasionally edgy this is on the whole an empathetic hour of comedy where you laugh with not at, other than when the glare of scrutiny is turned upon himself.
★★★
The Greatest Hits of Lily and John
Tritone Theatre
Bleakly funny, with as much if not more drama than either comedy or music, this is an offbeat exploration of depression and anxiety told via a not-so Happy Horse singing songs about suicidal intent. The meta, meta, meta structure – albeit one that refuses out loud to break the 4th wall – comes alive when the music happens, and for me it was the highlight of the show. Two emotional, raging, theatrical numbers sung by Lily in particular left me wanting more. A sweet play that seems to encapsulate much of the ennui of the modern age, the eternally complex tangle of dealing with the emotions of other people, and the importance of allowing yourself to be looked out for.
★★★
Joffrey! The Pantomime
Quintuple L
Plague
Sidgwick and Sanders
Pillows
Sam Adlam
Dot Dot Dot Dash
Two Ladders Productions
Once Upon a Midnight Dreary
Quids In Theatre Company
All words by Susan Sloan.